Taylor Atha Papers

Dates: 1927-2000.

Autograph Collector.

The Taylor Atha papers are comprised of legal documents signed by Harry S. Truman and personal correspondence between Truman, Rufus Burrus, and others. The collection also contains letters, telegrams, newspaper clippings, checks, and Christmas cards signed by Presidents of the United States.

Size: 10 linear inches (about 1600 pages).
Access: Open.
Copyright: Taylor Atha has donated to the U.S. government his copyright interest
in all writings in this collection. Documents created by U.S. government employees
in the course of their official duties are also in the public domain. Copyright
interest in other documents presumably belongs to the creators of those
documents, or their heirs.
Processed by: Elizabeth Carrington (2005)
as part of the Truman Library Internship
Program; David Clark (2013). Supervising Archivists: Randy Sowell and David Clark.

Taylor Atha, a document collector from the Kansas City,
Missouri area, accumulated these documents and donated them to the Harry S. Truman
Library in 1997. It appears that some of the papers originally belonged to Rufus Burrus, a longtime
friend and attorney of Harry S. Truman who served as Assistant County Counselor in
Jackson County from 1927 to 1941.

The Taylor Atha papers are comprised of legal documents signed by Harry S. Truman and personal correspondence between Truman, Rufus Burrus, and others. The collection also contains letters, telegrams, newspaper clippings, checks, and Christmas cards signed by Presidents of the United States. The collection is comprised of one series, a Chronological File, which is arranged chronologically.

Harry S. Truman became the Presiding Judge of the Jackson County Court in 1927, serving two terms before pursuing other political aspirations. One of Truman's main accomplishments as County Judge was the improvement of Jackson County roads. As such, part of the collection consists of various land declarations as well as numerous road surveys and orders for improvements. Another item included is a set of blueprints for a foot bridge over a set of Missouri Pacific Railroad tracks. By the time Truman left office, Jackson County had more than 200 miles of new concrete roads.

In the 1920s, Truman was a partner in the Truman-Barr Insurance Agency. Among the legal documents are depositions from a lawsuit brought by Truman and his partner Robert W. Barr against a previous manager of the insurance company named Emir C. Henthorn.

Additional documents in the collection include personal correspondence between Burrus, Truman, family members and friends, and a few prominent people such as Vice President Walter Mondale. Among the documents are letters from acquaintances, newspaper clippings, telegrams, invitations to government functions, thank-you notes from Margaret Truman, and holiday greetings from Bess Truman to Burrus and his wife Ila. Also included are Christmas cards signed by Presidents of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Jimmy Carter and William J. Clinton.